Kendl Winter

Banjo-wielding multi-instrumentalist Kendl Winter is a rare entry on the K Records roster. Her acoustic singer-songwriter bent is not as experimental as her labelmates, nor is her earthbound, string-based, five-album catalog any more cosmic than the likes of Kimya Dawson, Calvin Johnson, or LAKE, by comparison. And unlike those bands' often wildly expressive ways, Winter's voice is pretty and delicately tempered. But within those wavering pipes is a devotional love of the Pacific Northwest, and her latest release, The Mechanics of Hovering Flight (a meditation on the hummingbird), exalts the natural beauty of our region. Chanterelle mushrooms, Doug Firs, and all kinds of birds mingle with measures of fluttering banjo and a few bars of yodeling, inviting the listener further into a world—both natural and musical—that's stripped of pretense and genuinely stunning. With Breathe Owl Breathe, Cataldo. GWENDOLYN ELLIOTT